power is power

“Magnolia Crescent. Magnolia Road. Wisteria Walk.” Bell murmured. Reciting street names was a coping mechanism her incompetent therapist had come up with, but it was still something she clung to. Hands still shaking, she attempted to reassure herself. It wasn’t him. He’s not here. she told herself. But she had been so sure. Out of the corner of her eyes, she barely noticed a flash of blinding green light headed her way. She dodged almost too late, the curse hitting the wall behind her. Her hues finding the caster, she aimed a spell of her own back at them. “Sectumsempra.”

nate’s comrade----if simply being on the same side could warrant the title----fell next to him, and he didn’t bother trying to heal him; he’d seen what had happened to those who were stupid enough to put another’s safety above their own. instead, he turned to the witch who had fired the dark curse, eyebrow raised as he recognized her from the ministry, “a bit of a nasty curse for an auror to use, don’t you think? then again,” he waved his hand, gesturing to the chaos around him, “apparently the order has finally grown some teeth. too bad-----"a slash of his wand and a violet jet of light burst forth, heading straight for her, “----you’ve still got some catching up to do.”

pippa lived for the thrill – and, admittedly, the danger. a mercurial, temperamental need for it lurked within, and who was pippa to ignore it? she thrived on excitement but preferred it contained as part of her own self destruction or inflicted by her own hands. she could be lethal if she wanted to be, but pippa always danced upon the thin line between chaos and calamity. the blonde poured herself into her fencing and dueling. the thrill of the competition and the challenge of the take down was absolutely exhilarating, and it translated into her dueling prowess. it never dawned on her that she could falter when she needed it most.

“once upon a time, yes,” she admitted, “however, you still have your hand, right??” she flashed him a brilliant smile. it tensed when he mentioned james, and dissipated when he mentioned one of the few shreds of stability she managed to cling to. pippa grit her teeth and took a shot, “sectumsempra!” before collapsing. the ground was hard beneath her body, and cold beneath her cheek. bloodied hems of ballgowns blurred past, and pippa couldn’t tell if she was dying or dreaming. fire danced down her spine and ice slithered through her veins, though tunneling vision caught a glimpse of annette – bloodied and battered – sliding down a wall. with every ounce of her being, pippa tried army crawling towards her. she had to get to annie.

nate looked down at pippa as she writhed on the floor with a bemused grin, just barely sidestepping her curse. as hand hand reached outward, he stepped on it, the sickening crunch as he pressed down on her wrist reaching his ears despite the din of the battle around them. nate leaned down, grinding his heel for good measure, a final SNAP sounding before he stepped off. another round of the cruciatus curse followed, this one longer, before he pulled her to her feet, a lazy wave of his wand tossing her into a nearby wall. he approached slowly, his gait almost casual, as if there weren’t spells and hexes being thrown about around them. “nothing to say, pips? never thought i’d see the day where words failed pippa bardon. maybe playing in the trash has DULLED you. as you can see----the potters and their ilk? are living on borrowed time.” he glanced int he direction she’d been crawling, lips curling into a smirk as he spotted annette, “little sis, right? ------maybe i should go grab her, make you watch as i send her off to see jamie-----would you like that, pippa? or----I KNOW, you have such a thing for mongrels, maybe i’ll introduce her to greyback, that way you can have a set.”

In the eye of a hurricane there is quiet; for just a moment, a green sky – a second flash of green quickly followed the first. there was little more that pippa could do than catch a glimpse of the horror show below on the lawn. the surrounding brutality muffled and slowed as the first body jumped in front of the soon-to-fall second. anna had been a frigid fortress of a girl, but her warmth and sly smiles had been coaxed out by james. oh, james – annette!! snapping back to reality and biting back tears, pippa craned her head in search of her sisters as she pushed through the crowd. “annie!! aurie!! natal-,” someone intercepted her, “you can fuck right off,” she spat, whipping around to face the obtruder. nate.

nate watched the proceedings of the battle with the interested eyes of someone who enjoyed the turmoil of others-----someone who liked to witness chaos even if he stood in the shadows while it occurred. watching anna moon and james potter die, however, gave him pause----not out of any sense of remorse, but more the irritation one feels when someone else breaks their toys. james ought to have died by his hand----it was always how he’d envisioned things ending, anyway (or maybe he just wanted james alive to torment him until the war was well and truly over, and james’ existence rendered obsolete). either way, his lips twitched downward into a frown----that is, until he saw a familiar figure pushing past him through the crowd. she would do.

“fuck right off? you’ve already helped me play that game, pips, and if i recall you quite enjoyed it.” reminding her of their time together was an easy way to rile her up----to remind her of a time in her life where her coping mechanisms certainly made her do things she wasn’t proud of. “shame, isn’t it?” he mocked, chin jutting out in the direction of the bodies. “i always thought i’d be the one to kill him. and snapping the neck-----well, there goes any hope for an open casket. then again, the potter luck always did seem to skip out on poor jamie, didn’t it?” wand at the ready, he feigned a careless look around the crowd, “and where’s jas, pips? let the mutt off his leash for the night? or maybe someone did us all a favor and put him down?” barely giving her any time for a response, he cast a cruciatus curse her way-----pippa may be a pretty face, but nate knew she was more than that, and didn’t want to give her a chance to get the upper hand.

Mornings were hard enough without having to bite back a bitterness that didn’t come from the coffee in his hand. Swallowing thickly, James pursed his lips forcibly, squaring himself to be on the defensive. The bitterness, he could handle. It had been his own fault, after all, that he had set himself up for a betrayal that he should have seen coming had he not been in such a foggy mental haze. Facing Nate would be easier if the aftermath had affected only him. His own hurt was easy to contain. Guilt, however, chipped away at the compartments in his head where he kept his emotions in check. Shame was a soul-eating emotion. Locking his jaw, he refused to take the bait. Nate didn’t deserve his position. His brother should be in Nate’s place. ( And Kingsley Shacklebolt should still be in the Minister’s seat. ) Taking a stand, he took a step forward to minimize the distance between them. He disregarded most of Nate’s inquiries. “Send out that memo. Short of you attempting to Imperio me,” Which wouldn’t work, James had steeled his defenses greatly since he had fallen victim of Veritaserum, “You’re going to have to actually do your own job. Not that I expect you to know much of anything about putting in any honest effort in what you do.”

“now, now, let’s be honest, james,” his emphasis on the word was a delightful sort of irony---nothing about their friendship had ever been honest, from nate’s perspective at least. james, likely, had truly considered him a pal, and that amused nate more than anything. “we both know i’m capable of working very hard when i want something----your lack of ambition has always been one of your greatest flaws, jamie.” voice dropping lower, he added, “second only to your TERRIBLE intuition.” leaning back---because merlin, someday james would reach the end of his rope and hit him---he continued, “i’ll send the memo, no worries----minister greengrass is very interested in knowing what the department of mysteries funds are going towards; have to make sure you lot are earning your keep, right?”

Eyes sunken in and blurring from lack of sleep and far too blotchy and irritated to wear contacts comfortably, James was forced to put on his glasses to hope to see more clearly, readjusting the spectacles before folding up his newspaper and setting it into the recycling bin. It was always part of his morning routine to wake up earlier than necessary to properly rouse up for the day, going through the motions and reading the newspaper over a cup of coffee to get the gears of his brain turning, otherwise he was sluggish and no more productive than a zombie. “Sorry, I didn’t catch what you were saying at the end there? I’m not awake quite yet.” His focus was often too split these days, stuck in a tunnel vision. 

life had, in recent years, been good to nathaniel tuft. after hogwarts, his time spent quietly gathering intel for the death eaters paid off as the war swung in their direction, and although it was by no means won, he currently enjoyed a cushy ministry job near the top of the food chain that would, inevitably, lead him upward on a path to---hopefully---the position of minister itself. in a way, he had james potter to THANK for that. his naivety (or maybe apathy) during fifth year and inability to discern who he should trust (his family) versus who he shouldn’t (nate) had resulted in a years-long ‘friendship’ or sorts that culminated in much of the invaluable information that helped nate end up where he was now----and without a shred of evidence to put him away. at the cost of revealing his true colors, however, was one of his favorite pastimes----messing with james----so when he had the chance to, he took it. “late night, jamie? you seem a little off your game---and we all know how poorly that can end.” nate didn’t take a seat; preferring to remain standing in case james’ temper was really on edge today, “i was telling you----the minister wants to see your department head, she needs an update on your projects---think you can tell him, or will i have to send a memo?”

“…well. I think it’s fairly safe to say that neither of us are supposed to be out, much less at this hour. So I say we make a deal–I promise I won’t rat you out once I’m back so long as YOU don’t rat me out when you’re back. Agreed?”

“well, well, well,” interrupting whatever conversation had been taking place between the youngest potter and the other truant who’d snuck out of hogwarts for the night, nate looked down at the redhead with a smug smile, swirling his glass of firewhiskey in his hand, “security at hogwarts has really fallen by the wayside, hasn’t it, little potter? i’ll have to bring it up to the minister----i’m sure he’d love to ask headmaster gudgeon why his students are out drinking on a school night.”